Hi! This page has been created to capture the collective wisdom and notes from the Permaculture Intro course led by Ethan Roland at Powell House on August 2 and 3, 2008. :)
What is Permaculture?
1. Permanent Agriculture
2. A design science that seeks to integrate humans and their needs
into their landscape
3. Applied common sense
4. A vision for sustainable abundance, for co-creation- a course back to the path modern civilization has strayed from.
5. A design system that meets human needs & increases human health
6. "The art of not shitting where you sleep." - Bill Mollison
Who "invented" Permaculture?
Bill Mollison & David Holmgren started PC in the 1970's
Bill Mollison studied/worked in Australia and saw that cooperation, not competition is key in foodwebs and maintaining ecosystems
What are some Current World Problems?
1. War
2. Water Rights
3. Climate Instability
4. Peak Oil (the half way point of all fossil fuels used, a.k.a. bad times)
5. Pollution
6. 6X (The Sixth Great Extinction)
7. Education
8. Food Processing
9. Disconnectedness/ Arrogance (loss of community, culture, ancestral wisdom, practical knowledge)
10. Desertification, Soil Loss, Salinization, Deforestation
11. Corporations, Disinformation & Misinformation
How does PC work?
1. Through design systems
2. By creating community networks (there are over 1 million certified permaculturists)
Permaculture can be thought of as a pie, where all many pieces make up a whole, the most important part being the connections between them
{insert pie drawing here}
The Three Rules/ Ethics of PC
1. Earth Care
2. People Care
3. Resource Share
Its important to remember that these ethics aren't separate, they are cyclical and feed back into each other
"Re-invest your surplus of one back into the others."
Principles of Permaculture
1. Everything must have at least three functions, every action three purposes
2. Every critical need should be met in more than one way, diversify everything
3. Functional interconnection- the web of of connection between all elements
4. Relative location- effectiveness of proximity of things to maximize energy use and encourage growth
5. Observe and interact- watch your field site for a year, figure out what it needs, then go!
6. Use edges, value marginal- all edges provide more energy, use them
7. Functional diversity- Polyculture- diversity that works: stability, fertility, productivity, economy, community
8. Design from patterns to details- look for patterns in a larger system and then work your way down to details
9. Use renewable (biological) resources
10. Catch & store energy in your system- water, light, energy, biomass, electricity, etc
Attitudinal Principles:
11. Work with nature- insist rather than impeded natural elements
12. The problem is the solution- opportunities rather than obstacles
13. Leverage- the greatest amount of good for the greatest amount of people with the least amount of energy and time involved
14. Everything gardens
15. Infinite yields
Opposing models of functionality- Linear (modern man-made) vs. Cyclical (what nature does on its own)
Linear model - begins with sun, moves through ecosystem with intensive human effort and channelling and ends up in massive amounts of waste that can't be used again.
Cyclical model - begins with sun, moves through a complex web of interconnected plant and animal species, and cycles there indefinitely
A note about invasive species a.k.a. weeds
Weeds are healers. If your soil is compacted then it will be full of weeds with tap roots to break up the soil. If it is too loose than it will be full of weeds with binding roots. Too much sun, they'll provide ground cover. Not enough nitrogen, they'll fix that.
An interesting example would be of the invasive gorse plant in New Zealand. Heavily grazed fields in New Zealand (at some point in time) became invaded by a plant called gorse. The shepherds fought the plant vigorously, but on a plot of land somewhere in the midst of all the overgrazing, the native people, Maori, allowed the gorse to flourish. The neghboring shepherd complained it would go to seed and infest their fields as well. The Maori didn't care. Before long the gorse began to attract birds and other animals because of its ground cover, those animals brought in seeds of other plant species and the area became more diverse. Over time the diversity of plant and animal species increased and began to reapair the soil. Within thirty years there was a fully restored and very healthy new growth forest where the damaged field had once been.
A Design Process for Permaculture
1. Articulate goals-
what are the desires of you project, remember to think holistically. This is also really important when working with a client to make sure you're all on the same page. Remember, patterns to details.
2. Analyze and assess the site-
Climate, landform, water, trees, vegetation, microclimate, soils, building, aesthetics*
*Aesthetics should not be your main consideration, however, if its not beautiful when you are done you
did something wrong.
3. Design-
Draw plans for your system
4. Implement
5. Evaluate- What steps were met, what were not? How can it be improved? Go back and do that.
All of these steps should form, beyond a cycle, an upward spiral, a positive self-reinforcing feedback loop of continuous work, improvement and growth.
Forest Gardening -
- A consciously designed ecosystem that mimics the structure and function of temperate forests
- A perrenial polyculture of multi-purpose plants
-perrenial = 3 to 3000 years of return growth (i.e. doesn't need to be replanted every year)
-monoculture vs. polyculture
-each species fulfills at least 3 functions (7 F's)
-"The ultimate goal of farming is not the cultivation of crops, but the perfection of human beings."
Note, forest gardens are like a forest, not necessarily in a forest.
Guilds-
A guild is a group of symbiotic mutualistic plants, a beneficial assembly of species. For example the 3 sisters- squash, flint corn, and dry pole beans- the squah provide ground cover for the other two, the corn provides a stalk for the beans to climb and (i think) the beans fix nitrogen into the soil for the other two.
A more complex guild example is an apple tree with clover, comfry and members of the umbel family planted around the base, gummi (goomy?) and gooseberry planted around the perimiter of the apple tree's branch radius. An important factor here is not only the chemistry of what complements but also the associated root structures- each of the aforementioned plants have collaborating root structures, they occupy distinctly different sections of ground and maximize water usage in a given area.
Food Uses for FGs
-fruits
-greens and shoots
-nuts
-roots
-culinary & tea
-mushrooms
Ecosystem functions of FGs
-mulch
-dynamic accumulators
-beneficial insectaries
-wildlife habitat
-ground cover
-erosion control
-clean air + water
-High diverse yields
-maximum self maintenance
-maximum ecological health
-improve economic stability
-cultivate & embody a new paradigm for modern western humans as co-creative participants in the ecosystem
Aquaponics/ aquaculture- can be up to 30x more productive for certain types of food.
4. Social Structure
- species niches
- community niches
- food webs
- guilds
Note, a forest garden layout would look, from above, like a series of "keyhole" structures, maximizing the amount of growth within arms reach.
In a break session we split into groups of Elders, Middle-aged friends, and young adult friends. We were asked to brainstorm about the different gifts that our respective groups brought to the work of permaculture and the community as a whole. The groups convened, mixed, and reconvened. The following are some of the notes from these sessions
Elders bring to the work of PC life experience, wisdom, stability (land, resources, etc), encouragement, teaching capabilities, being role models, good organizational ability,
Middle Age Friends act as a bridge between age groups, as they are able to see understand and connect with both sides, with plenty of energy still but with some resources and good experiences under their belt. Middle age friends have an improved sense of the whole, with an accompanying sense of vision and awareness.
Young Adult Friends have lots of energy and optimism, a willingness to experiment and push boundaries, they are freer- less constrained by obligation and permanence, open and willing to receive new information.
Regeneration vs. sustainability
To sustain says nothing of thriving, regeneration, however focuses on rebuilding, strengthening, and improving continuously. Regenerative design acknowledges PC as an important key, but recognizes that there are other equally important and necessary disciplines to address things that PC does not, like spirituality for example.
Sheet Mulching!
Sheet mulching is a no till planting style designed to build soil and maintain the insect and bacterial integrity of the existing soil. Sheet mulching is comprised of several layers of materials to optimize growing conditions.
The first layer down is a weedy nutrient material- raw manure, grass clippings, half-finished compost, etc.
On top of that place a weed barrier, card board is ideal, though 10 sheet-thick newspaper will work as well. Make sure to use big sheets of cardboard, with few or no holes. Overlap sheets of cardboard at least four inches around, also pattern them like bricks as opposed to shingles. Double thick cardboard is even better than single.
On the weed barrier place a weed-free fine compost. Weed free compost can be attained from unattended compost that's been left to sit for several years, or from compost that's been cooked at 175 degrees for several days (for reference check out the 18 Day Berkley Compost)
Above that layer place the absolutely-weed-free mulch. This comes usually from wood chips (hard wood is best, but soft wood works well too).
Ideally each layer will be 3-4 inches thick (perhaps not the cardboard) However, 1 inch thickness is adequate.
To plant in sheet mulch, separate the wood mulch and compost, in some cases as a deeper root structure requires break through the cardboard. Going further, you may need to dig beneath the cardboard layer into the existing soil as in the case of trees and some bushes.
Resources/ stuff to look into:
Edible Forest Gardens by David Jacke
Tree Crops, A Permanent Agriculture by Jay Russel Smith (1927!)
Serious Strawbale by ?
The RUST workshop, Albany NY sep 20-21 (dates?) This workshop in "radical urban sustainability training" is put on by the Rhizome Collective...
Conway School of Landscape Design, MA (where Dave Jacke went, or teaches?)
Camp Epworth - a camp where one can get PC training and certification. This is where our facilitator Ethan Roland was trained and sometimes offers PC courses. There will be a winter course taught by Ethan and others beginning in November for one weekend a month until April. For more information contact: Joan & Wilton, Green Phoenix Permaculture 845-687-7646, mamajoane@yahoo.com, 8 Epworth Lane, High Falls, NY 12440
Appleseed Permaculture- Ethan Roland's PC design firm- www.appleseedpermaculture.com
What is Permaculture?
1. Permanent Agriculture
2. A design science that seeks to integrate humans and their needs
into their landscape
3. Applied common sense
4. A vision for sustainable abundance, for co-creation- a course back to the path modern civilization has strayed from.
5. A design system that meets human needs & increases human health
6. "The art of not shitting where you sleep." - Bill Mollison
Who "invented" Permaculture?
Bill Mollison & David Holmgren started PC in the 1970's
Bill Mollison studied/worked in Australia and saw that cooperation, not competition is key in foodwebs and maintaining ecosystems
What are some Current World Problems?
1. War
2. Water Rights
3. Climate Instability
4. Peak Oil (the half way point of all fossil fuels used, a.k.a. bad times)
5. Pollution
6. 6X (The Sixth Great Extinction)
7. Education
8. Food Processing
9. Disconnectedness/ Arrogance (loss of community, culture, ancestral wisdom, practical knowledge)
10. Desertification, Soil Loss, Salinization, Deforestation
11. Corporations, Disinformation & Misinformation
How does PC work?
1. Through design systems
2. By creating community networks (there are over 1 million certified permaculturists)
Permaculture can be thought of as a pie, where all many pieces make up a whole, the most important part being the connections between them
{insert pie drawing here}
The Three Rules/ Ethics of PC
1. Earth Care
2. People Care
3. Resource Share
Its important to remember that these ethics aren't separate, they are cyclical and feed back into each other
"Re-invest your surplus of one back into the others."
Principles of Permaculture
1. Everything must have at least three functions, every action three purposes
2. Every critical need should be met in more than one way, diversify everything
3. Functional interconnection- the web of of connection between all elements
4. Relative location- effectiveness of proximity of things to maximize energy use and encourage growth
5. Observe and interact- watch your field site for a year, figure out what it needs, then go!
6. Use edges, value marginal- all edges provide more energy, use them
7. Functional diversity- Polyculture- diversity that works: stability, fertility, productivity, economy, community
8. Design from patterns to details- look for patterns in a larger system and then work your way down to details
9. Use renewable (biological) resources
10. Catch & store energy in your system- water, light, energy, biomass, electricity, etc
Attitudinal Principles:
11. Work with nature- insist rather than impeded natural elements
12. The problem is the solution- opportunities rather than obstacles
13. Leverage- the greatest amount of good for the greatest amount of people with the least amount of energy and time involved
14. Everything gardens
15. Infinite yields
Opposing models of functionality- Linear (modern man-made) vs. Cyclical (what nature does on its own)
Linear model - begins with sun, moves through ecosystem with intensive human effort and channelling and ends up in massive amounts of waste that can't be used again.
Cyclical model - begins with sun, moves through a complex web of interconnected plant and animal species, and cycles there indefinitely
A note about invasive species a.k.a. weeds
Weeds are healers. If your soil is compacted then it will be full of weeds with tap roots to break up the soil. If it is too loose than it will be full of weeds with binding roots. Too much sun, they'll provide ground cover. Not enough nitrogen, they'll fix that.
An interesting example would be of the invasive gorse plant in New Zealand. Heavily grazed fields in New Zealand (at some point in time) became invaded by a plant called gorse. The shepherds fought the plant vigorously, but on a plot of land somewhere in the midst of all the overgrazing, the native people, Maori, allowed the gorse to flourish. The neghboring shepherd complained it would go to seed and infest their fields as well. The Maori didn't care. Before long the gorse began to attract birds and other animals because of its ground cover, those animals brought in seeds of other plant species and the area became more diverse. Over time the diversity of plant and animal species increased and began to reapair the soil. Within thirty years there was a fully restored and very healthy new growth forest where the damaged field had once been.
A Design Process for Permaculture
1. Articulate goals-
what are the desires of you project, remember to think holistically. This is also really important when working with a client to make sure you're all on the same page. Remember, patterns to details.
2. Analyze and assess the site-
Climate, landform, water, trees, vegetation, microclimate, soils, building, aesthetics*
*Aesthetics should not be your main consideration, however, if its not beautiful when you are done you
did something wrong.
3. Design-
Draw plans for your system
4. Implement
5. Evaluate- What steps were met, what were not? How can it be improved? Go back and do that.
All of these steps should form, beyond a cycle, an upward spiral, a positive self-reinforcing feedback loop of continuous work, improvement and growth.
Forest Gardening -
- A consciously designed ecosystem that mimics the structure and function of temperate forests
- A perrenial polyculture of multi-purpose plants
-perrenial = 3 to 3000 years of return growth (i.e. doesn't need to be replanted every year)
-monoculture vs. polyculture
-each species fulfills at least 3 functions (7 F's)
-"The ultimate goal of farming is not the cultivation of crops, but the perfection of human beings."
Note, forest gardens are like a forest, not necessarily in a forest.
Guilds-
A guild is a group of symbiotic mutualistic plants, a beneficial assembly of species. For example the 3 sisters- squash, flint corn, and dry pole beans- the squah provide ground cover for the other two, the corn provides a stalk for the beans to climb and (i think) the beans fix nitrogen into the soil for the other two.
A more complex guild example is an apple tree with clover, comfry and members of the umbel family planted around the base, gummi (goomy?) and gooseberry planted around the perimiter of the apple tree's branch radius. An important factor here is not only the chemistry of what complements but also the associated root structures- each of the aforementioned plants have collaborating root structures, they occupy distinctly different sections of ground and maximize water usage in a given area.
Food Uses for FGs
-fruits
-greens and shoots
-nuts
-roots
-culinary & tea
-mushrooms
Ecosystem functions of FGs
-mulch
-dynamic accumulators
-beneficial insectaries
-wildlife habitat
-ground cover
-erosion control
-clean air + water
What builds soil?
Forest, savannah, prarie, shallow wetlands, no-till agriculture
Goals of FGs
-High diverse yields
-maximum self maintenance
-maximum ecological health
-improve economic stability
-cultivate & embody a new paradigm for modern western humans as co-creative participants in the ecosystem
Aquaponics/ aquaculture- can be up to 30x more productive for certain types of food.
So what are we mimicking in FGs?
Forest Ecosystem structure and function!
1.Architecture:
- vegetation layers
- soil horizons
- density
- patterning
- diversity
2. Sucession
3. Self-renewing fertility
4. Social Structure
- species niches
- community niches
- food webs
- guilds
Note, a forest garden layout would look, from above, like a series of "keyhole" structures, maximizing the amount of growth within arms reach.
In a break session we split into groups of Elders, Middle-aged friends, and young adult friends. We were asked to brainstorm about the different gifts that our respective groups brought to the work of permaculture and the community as a whole. The groups convened, mixed, and reconvened. The following are some of the notes from these sessions
Elders bring to the work of PC life experience, wisdom, stability (land, resources, etc), encouragement, teaching capabilities, being role models, good organizational ability,
Middle Age Friends act as a bridge between age groups, as they are able to see understand and connect with both sides, with plenty of energy still but with some resources and good experiences under their belt. Middle age friends have an improved sense of the whole, with an accompanying sense of vision and awareness.
Young Adult Friends have lots of energy and optimism, a willingness to experiment and push boundaries, they are freer- less constrained by obligation and permanence, open and willing to receive new information.
Regeneration vs. sustainability
To sustain says nothing of thriving, regeneration, however focuses on rebuilding, strengthening, and improving continuously. Regenerative design acknowledges PC as an important key, but recognizes that there are other equally important and necessary disciplines to address things that PC does not, like spirituality for example.
Sheet Mulching!
Sheet mulching is a no till planting style designed to build soil and maintain the insect and bacterial integrity of the existing soil. Sheet mulching is comprised of several layers of materials to optimize growing conditions.
The first layer down is a weedy nutrient material- raw manure, grass clippings, half-finished compost, etc.
On top of that place a weed barrier, card board is ideal, though 10 sheet-thick newspaper will work as well. Make sure to use big sheets of cardboard, with few or no holes. Overlap sheets of cardboard at least four inches around, also pattern them like bricks as opposed to shingles. Double thick cardboard is even better than single.
On the weed barrier place a weed-free fine compost. Weed free compost can be attained from unattended compost that's been left to sit for several years, or from compost that's been cooked at 175 degrees for several days (for reference check out the 18 Day Berkley Compost)
Above that layer place the absolutely-weed-free mulch. This comes usually from wood chips (hard wood is best, but soft wood works well too).
Ideally each layer will be 3-4 inches thick (perhaps not the cardboard) However, 1 inch thickness is adequate.
To plant in sheet mulch, separate the wood mulch and compost, in some cases as a deeper root structure requires break through the cardboard. Going further, you may need to dig beneath the cardboard layer into the existing soil as in the case of trees and some bushes.
Resources/ stuff to look into:
Edible Forest Gardens by David Jacke
Tree Crops, A Permanent Agriculture by Jay Russel Smith (1927!)
Serious Strawbale by ?
The RUST workshop, Albany NY sep 20-21 (dates?) This workshop in "radical urban sustainability training" is put on by the Rhizome Collective...
Conway School of Landscape Design, MA (where Dave Jacke went, or teaches?)
Camp Epworth - a camp where one can get PC training and certification. This is where our facilitator Ethan Roland was trained and sometimes offers PC courses. There will be a winter course taught by Ethan and others beginning in November for one weekend a month until April. For more information contact: Joan & Wilton, Green Phoenix Permaculture 845-687-7646, mamajoane@yahoo.com, 8 Epworth Lane, High Falls, NY 12440
Appleseed Permaculture- Ethan Roland's PC design firm- www.appleseedpermaculture.com
www.radicasustainability.org
www.flpci.org
www.permacultureactivist.net
www.northeasternpermaculture.wikispaces.com
www.permacultureacrossborders.com
Check out:
Tromb pumps